EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

January 18, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department incurred nearly $900,000 of added costs to provide patrols and security during the month-long construction of eight border wall prototypes by the federal government on Otay Mesa, records show. Those costs pushed the total local law enforcement extra expenses — primarily overtime and supplies — to more than $1 million for the project.

When two residents in the southeastern San Diego neighborhood of Encanto meet, there’s a 71 percent chance they’re of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. In the coastal community of Cardiff, there’s only a 25 percent chance of that happening.

Aman who claimed he was an anesthesiologist at Sharp Grossmont Hospital and a graduate of Harvard Medical School was arrested Thursday on an impersonation charge after he was found in the hospital’s doctor’s lounge…When hospital security approached Zaid Bassam Jeorge, 27, in the lounge, he was dressed in blue scrubs, a white physician’s coat bearing the Sharp logo and the name “Zaid Jorge, MD Anesthesiologist”…He also had with him a stethoscope, a cellphone with Arabic messages on the screen and a set of rental keys to a Mercedes-Benz.

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who said Wednesday he is not seeking reelection in California’s 49th District, has been discussing with colleagues the possibility of running in a neighboring San Diego district if embattled Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns, multiple sources told The Hill.

On Friday, one arm of the investigation culminated with a 10-year prison sentence for [San Diegan] Marchello McCain. The 35-year-old factory worker had pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and lying to the FBI as they probed his brother’s terrorism ties.

The plan to close California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, at the end of its current operating lease was approved today by the California Public Utilities Commission. Pacific Gas and Electric, Friends of the Earth, and other environmental and labor organizations reached a historic agreement in 2016 to shut down the two reactors at Diablo Canyon and replace them with renewable energy, efficiency and energy storage.

Congress is considering a handful of deals to address the legal status of people brought to the country illegally as children. Some include money for a wall along the Southern border, others would rewrite major chunks of immigration law.

Accused of extreme child abuse, the Turpins benefited for years from California's lax laws and regulations for home-schooled children, which require only that parents register with the state as a private school.

Local lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a flurry of bills that would strengthen consumer protections for homeowners in the aftermath of the North Bay wildfires, where local residents have found themselves underinsured and overly burdened attempting to itemize their personal property destroyed in the blazes.